Rosie the Riveter

Rosie the Riveter, media icon associated with female defense workers during World War II. Since the 1940s Rosie the Riveter has stood as a symbol for women in the workforce and for women’s independence.

Beginning in 1942, as an increasing number of American men were recruited for the war effort, women were needed to fill their positions in factories. Initially, women workers were recruited from among the working class, but, as the war production needs increased, it became necessary to recruit workers from among middle-class women. Since many of these women had not previously worked outside the home and had small children, the government not only had to convince them to enter the workforce, but it also had to provide ways for the women to care for their households and children. To accomplish this end, the U.S. Office of the War produced a variety of materials designed to convince these women to enter into war production jobs as part of their patriotic duty. Rosie the Riveter was part of this propaganda campaign and became the symbol of women in the workforce during World War II.

The first image now considered to be Rosie the Riveter was created by the American artist J. Howard Miller in 1942, but it was titled “We Can Do It!” and had no association with anyone named Rosie. It is believed that this initial drawing was part of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation’s wartime production campaign to recruit female workers. Miller’s drawing portrayed a woman in a red bandana with her bent arm flexed, rolling up her shirtsleeve.

In 1943 the song “Rosie the Riveter,” by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb, was released. This song touts the patriotic qualities of the mythical female war employee who defends America by working on the home front. Following the release of this song, Norman Rockwell’s drawing of his version of the female defense worker appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, on May 29, 1943. This version of Rosie was a much more muscular depiction of a woman in a blue jumpsuit, with a red bandana in her hair, eating a sandwich. Rockwell placed the name “Rosie” on the lunch box of the worker, and thus Rosie the Riveter was further solidified in the American collective memory.